This application relates generally to devices for positioning an infant while sleeping, and relates more particularly to an infant positioner for reducing the risk of sudden infant death while also reducing the risk of positional plagiocephaly, i.e., a flattened or misshapen region of the skull.
Medical studies have shown that infants who sleep on their backs or sides have a reduced risk of dying suddenly from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), compared to infants who sleep on their stomachs. Efforts by the American Academy of Pediatrics to disseminate this information to pediatricians and parents has resulted in an increase in the practice of placing infants in a supine position, i.e., on their backs for sleeping. A decrease in the incidence of SIDS has been observed in recent years.
An unanticipated effect of the increasingly widespread practice of placing infants in a supine position for sleeping has been an increase in the number of infants developing positional plagiocephaly, i.e., a flat or misshapen area on the back of the skull. A newborn infant""s skull is relatively deformable due to flexibility of the bone plates and non-fusion of the sutures between adjacent bone plates. This property of deformability permits the child""s head to pass between the bones of the mother""s pelvis during birth. As the infant matures, however, the bone plates of the skull become increasingly rigid and the sutures eventually fuse.
When an infant spends many hours daily sleeping exclusively on its back, the bones at the back of the skull tend to flatten from pressure against the sleeping surface due to the weight of the child""s head. If the practice of sleeping exclusively on the back is continued through the critical period during which the bones of the skull become rigid, the flat or misshapen area on the back of the skull can become permanent.
It would be desirable to provide a structure that maintains the position of an infant on its back during sleep to gain the benefit of reducing the risk of dying from SIDS, but that also reduces the risk of the infant developing positional plagiocephaly. This and other desirable benefits are provided by the present invention described below in terms of a preferred embodiment.
An infant positioner is provided for positioning an infant in a supine position for sleeping. The infant positioner also reduces the risk of developing positional plagiocephaly in an infant sleeping in a supine position. The infant positioner includes a mat, a first body pillow attached to the mat, and a second body pillow attached to the mat in spaced relationship with the first body pillow. The spacing accommodates an infant""s torso lying in a supine position on the mat between the first and second body pillows. A head positioner is attached to the mat for supporting the head of an infant lying supine on the mat between the first and second body pillows. The head positioner has at least one upper surface that slopes transversely such that the infant""s head is caused to rotate to the side while sleeping in the supine position.
Other advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the description of preferred embodiments, made with reference to the drawings, that follows.